Mail from Auschwitz I was cancelled with a an Auschwitz (Obershles) 2 postmark. Below is a thumbnail of the front of a cover postmarked March 19, 1942, from prisoner #209. The cover is identified in Lordahl as Type E2c with a Type C3 censor mark. Please click on the thumbnail to see the full image, and then click your back key or "Envelopes" in the left frame to return.
Below is a thumbnail of a two page lettersheet sent from prisoner 508 dated December 9, 1940. The lettersheet is identified in Lordahl as Type S1a with a Type C1 censor mark. Please click on the thumbnail to see the full image, and then click your back key or "Lettersheets" in the left frame to return.
Below are thumbnails of a folded letter to Lublin postmarked October 23, 1942 from prisoner 8658. The folded letter is identified in Lordahl as Type F1a with a Type C5 censor mark. Please click on the thumbnail to see the full image, and then click your back key or "Folded Letters" in the left frame to return.
Below are thumbnails of a folded letter to Krakow dated February 6, 1944 from prisoner 937. The folded letter is identified in Lordahl as Type F2b with a Type C5 censor mark. Please click on the thumbnail to see the full image, and then click your back key or "Folded Letters" in the left frame to return.
Below are thumbnails of two postcards. The first is a postcard to Posen postmarked April 2, 1944 from prisoner 23188, a M. Baranowski. This same prisoner was transferred ultimately to Gusen, a subcamp of Mauthausen, as I have a folded letter from the prisoner postmarked December 20, 1944 to the same addressee in Posen. The postcard is identified in Lordahl as Type P1 with a Type C1 censor mark. As the eastern front moved westward in 1944, it is likely that the prisoner was transferred to Gusen, since Gusen was an important center for the production of war material. The second is an official POW postcard sent by a Polish officer confined at the Oflag II E camp in Neubrandenburg, to his wife, an inmate at the Auschwitz Women's Camp. This card is postmarked November 5, 1942 with a red Oflag II E censor cachet and a Lordahl type C4 Auschwitz censor mark. Mail sent from POW camps required no postage. The sender states that he just learned of his wife's whereabouts and received permission to send this card. Please click on the thumbnail to see the full image, and then click your back key or "Postcards" in the left frame to return.
Below are thumbnails of a postcard to Krakau postmarked November 13, 1943 from prisoner 127634. The postcard is identified in Lordahl as Type P2 with a Type C5 censor mark. Please click on the thumbnail to see the full image, and then click your back key or "Postcards" in the left frame to return.
Below are thumbnails of two miscellaneous items. The first is a telegram from the Commandant advising a wife that her husband died in the camp. The second is a notification dated December 11, 1944, from the Commandant of Auschwitz that a prisoner had been sent to Buchenwald.
Erik Lordahl, German Concentration Camps 1933-1945, History and Inmate Mail (2000). Referred to as Lordahl.
Copyright © 2001 Edward Victor